I am a woman. I am a scientist. I am a student. I am a child, an aunt, a sister, a friend, a teacher and a runner. I have many roles, but here, I am usually seen as just one; a woman. Here this role, which is most visible doesn’t match with my second role, which in my mind is my first role, scientist. A tiger scientist. I am a tiger scientist in Riau, Sumatra, which is extremely different from my home country, the United States. In Riau, society is still very traditional and conservative. Women usually don’t wear shorts or short sleeves. Let alone go to the forest to study tigers. At almost every office I visit, there are questions:

“Wow, a woman that wants to go to the field? You’re not scared?”

Actually, I am very scared. I am scared my grandchildren won’t know what a tiger is. I am scared Indonesian children won’t know the benefits of the native forests, which regulate the rain cycle and clean the air. I’m scare the most beautiful country in the world, Indonesia, will burn and hundreds, maybe thousands of unique endemic species will go extinct. But scared of becoming tiger food? No. There aren’t enough tigers left to be scared of them.

But even if there were enough tigers left, I still wouldn’t be too scared. As a child growing up in America, I always played outside in the small forest near my house. My sister and I would make up stories and play with our toy horses, sharks, turtles and other animals. My parents let us play outside for as long as we wanted. And during the weekends, we would go on walks in the beautiful Michigan forests together as a family. But the outdoor activity I enjoyed the most when I was young was playing softball with my friends. In the summer evenings, the sun rays gave a golden orange glow to the field behind my school. Standing there in the outfield watching the infield, waiting for a hit with my friends in the perfect summer weather is my idea of heaven. These memories of playing softball over the course of ten years are by far my favorite. Maybe these experiences outside and being active with my friends and being taught to love nature by my parents are the reason I am now pulled to do fieldwork now.

In addition, when I was young, my parents never said I couldn’t do anything. In their eyes, if I wanted to be a doctor, I could. If I wanted to be an astronaut, I could. If I wanted to be an artist, I could. They taught me that I could do anything and be anything if I worked as hard as I could for it. Their belief in me freed me from the constraints of the societal norms that women must only do certain jobs.

For Americans, studying big cats internationally is extremely competitive and difficult because there are many people that want a chance to travel abroad and study ‘cool’ animals. Because of the stiff competition, I didn’t think being a tiger researcher was a possibility. Then, during my master’s studies at Duke University I found an area of research that fit with my usual way of thinking; Geographic Information Systems, or GIS. When I was young, I would sit with my father and read maps with him in the evenings. If he was looking at a map, I would jump up and join. Perhaps due to those times, my brain works spatially. I can remember a few instances giving my dad directions even though I was six years old. But before I studied at Duke, I didn’t know that I could make a career out of my spatial awareness.

After graduating with my master’s, I began working for WWF-United States in Washington DC as a GIS Analyst for the tiger team. During that job, I began learning more about tigers and was given the opportunity to travel to Asia a few times. Like my parents told me when I was a child, I worked as hard and as best as I could. With the help of my supervisors there, I found a doctoral position at Virginia Tech to study tigers – one of my life-long dreams.

This time, my time in Indonesia, is very unique, special and an extremely difficult challenge for me. As a scientist, I have finally been released in the wild. I plan most aspects and make most decisions regarding my research myself since my advisor is still in the US and has never been to Indonesia. The freedom can be daunting, but I know I can do anything I put my mind to. I am based out of the WWF-Riau office, and when I first met the field teams here, I was surprised. “Why are there only men? This is weird,” I thought. “Surely there are women in Indonesia that like the environment, too. Where are they?” With my freedom, I have tried to start making changes step by step.

Since conservation began as a field of study, most scientists have been white men. So far, in conservation, we haven’t seen great results and many species’ populations are still declining despite decades of work. Elephants, tigers, deer and various monkey species in Riau are still declining. This is why we need as much help in the field of conservation as possible. We need as many ideas and voices and viewpoints as possible. If only men are allowed to go to the field, allowed to research we are only limiting ourselves and jeopardizing our world. We all lose if not everyone is allowed to work on solving such a challenge as environmental conservation. Imagine all of the children that love the forest, love monkeys and are smart, but are told the forest is a scary place or they aren’t allowed to pursue their passion. Perhaps we’re missing out on great ideas that can help save our forests and wildlife.

This is why I have tried again and again to find women to join my field team. Women worldwide are as smart and as strong as men, but our opportunities are usually fewer. All children, all over the world have the same abilities when they are young. The differences arise with different opportunities and encouragement. We all have the ability to change the world if we believe in our children, ourselves and work as hard as we can to accomplish our dreams. Every time I’m asked if I’m scared I do become a little bit more scared. Somewhere, maybe long ago, behind that question there was a child that couldn’t pursue his or her dream. Please help change the thinking that only certain people can do certain things. Next time you see a woman doing an unusual job, rather than ask, “Why are you doing that?”, ask, “Why wouldn’t she do that?”. Thanks, because the women in your life are already bored with the first question.